ABU CARDINAL 66 1ST VERSION REFURB
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:53 am
A few weeks ago I took delivery of one of the ABU Cardinal 66's, a true 1st version reel, long story short it was sold and the new owner now wants a complete refurb done to it to make it look like the reel I had done by Ray Moss.
As you will know Ray has recently just returned home from hospital after suffering severe burn injuries, on the mend now he reckons he will be back to normal in the new year, thing is Ray is old school, "sitting around doing nowt youth is nay good" as he reminded me.
So being a painter of 35 years I decided to play around with a couple of old dog reels I had here, plenty of rubbing down, cleaning, cussing and swearing I managed to do a couple of reels over a few days before I left for work in the morning, I would then come home and do more work on them before it got dark in the evenings.
With my results up to a reasonable standard ( one reel in particular) I had a chat with owner of the 66 and he was quite prepared to let me do all the preparation work on the reel, this in turn would save Ray all the hassle of rubbing down which his hands wont handle right now, 5 hours later and Im beginning to wonder why I started undeterred I have reached a good standard of preparation and the reel is now boxed and on its way to Ray, we dont care if its this year or next year that the reel gets painted but I know the result will be prefect.
This is some of the work undertaken already.
With the reel now broken down to its component parts every single part will be examined, I have already found one part that needs replacing which has been the Achilles heal of the bigger cardinals since these were made, a small plastic coupling on the back of the boomerang very often breaks and this is exactly what I found when trying to dis-assemble the reel.
Over time I will add to this post and show you the outcome of whats achieved.
Meanwhile this is my first attempt at doing a couple of reels for myself and trust me there will not be anymore.
The "Stealth Bomber" silver reel as I call it now has a new badge on the base of the side plate reading Cardinal 44 instead of the Zebco badge which reads Cardinal 4. On badges I found something quite interesting on the 66 name plate which you can see in the pictures, the name Spurrong is cast into the back of the ultra rare name plate, I looked up this name and found some rather interesting history.
Sporrong is one of the oldest companies in Sweden. The business was founded in Stockholm on a cold February day back in 1666 by Master Henrik Grau, girdle-maker. Following several changes of name and owner, the business was taken over in 1842 by Carl Claes Sporrong, who also gave his name to the company. Today, production is carried out at the company’s own facilities in Finland and Estonia, or by authorised partners in other parts of the world. Sporrong has sales offices in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia and Latvia.
Sporrong Designs and crafts gifts and awards for every imaginable occasion - from honouring sports stars for their performance, to celebrate anniversaries at a company and rewarding employees for exceptional work or years of service
As you will know Ray has recently just returned home from hospital after suffering severe burn injuries, on the mend now he reckons he will be back to normal in the new year, thing is Ray is old school, "sitting around doing nowt youth is nay good" as he reminded me.
So being a painter of 35 years I decided to play around with a couple of old dog reels I had here, plenty of rubbing down, cleaning, cussing and swearing I managed to do a couple of reels over a few days before I left for work in the morning, I would then come home and do more work on them before it got dark in the evenings.
With my results up to a reasonable standard ( one reel in particular) I had a chat with owner of the 66 and he was quite prepared to let me do all the preparation work on the reel, this in turn would save Ray all the hassle of rubbing down which his hands wont handle right now, 5 hours later and Im beginning to wonder why I started undeterred I have reached a good standard of preparation and the reel is now boxed and on its way to Ray, we dont care if its this year or next year that the reel gets painted but I know the result will be prefect.
This is some of the work undertaken already.
With the reel now broken down to its component parts every single part will be examined, I have already found one part that needs replacing which has been the Achilles heal of the bigger cardinals since these were made, a small plastic coupling on the back of the boomerang very often breaks and this is exactly what I found when trying to dis-assemble the reel.
Over time I will add to this post and show you the outcome of whats achieved.
Meanwhile this is my first attempt at doing a couple of reels for myself and trust me there will not be anymore.
The "Stealth Bomber" silver reel as I call it now has a new badge on the base of the side plate reading Cardinal 44 instead of the Zebco badge which reads Cardinal 4. On badges I found something quite interesting on the 66 name plate which you can see in the pictures, the name Spurrong is cast into the back of the ultra rare name plate, I looked up this name and found some rather interesting history.
Sporrong is one of the oldest companies in Sweden. The business was founded in Stockholm on a cold February day back in 1666 by Master Henrik Grau, girdle-maker. Following several changes of name and owner, the business was taken over in 1842 by Carl Claes Sporrong, who also gave his name to the company. Today, production is carried out at the company’s own facilities in Finland and Estonia, or by authorised partners in other parts of the world. Sporrong has sales offices in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia and Latvia.
Sporrong Designs and crafts gifts and awards for every imaginable occasion - from honouring sports stars for their performance, to celebrate anniversaries at a company and rewarding employees for exceptional work or years of service